By Grace Dusenbury and Sophie Durham

Seniors Erin Ferris and Grace Dines, with early college commitments to continue their athletic careers beyond Grady, are part of a larger of trend of female athletes seizing opportunities after high school.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, only one in 27 girls participated in a high school sport in 1972. Today, about two in five do. In fact, women’s participation in college sports has increased 500 percent. As of 2010, however, women have 60,000 fewer college sports participation opportunities than males. Female athletes are slowly resolving this divide. At Grady, two female athletes have committed to play at the collegiate level next year.

Ferris verbally committed to play soccer in June at Armstrong State University, a Division II school in Savannah. She will officially sign for the team next semester.

Ferris has played soccer since she was four years old. She began her soccer career at Atlanta Youth Soccer Association (AYSA), which later became Inter Atlanta FC (IAFC), where she continued to play until the beginning of her sophomore year. Then, Ferris switched to Southern Soccer Academy (SSA), a development partner of the Chelsea football club, a major English Premier League team.

“I switched clubs so that I could have a better opportunity for college coaches to notice me,” Ferris said.

At SSA, Ferris began to play at a higher level, which eventually got her college scout recognition. Before her senior year, Ferris received offers from two schools: Jacksonville State, a Division I school in Alabama, and Armstrong State.

Even with these offers, Ferris had doubts about playing in college. She believed the level of commitment required was too high, and she would not have time to enjoy a regular college experience. However, after taking time to think about it, Ferris changed her mind.

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play soccer in college, but after thinking about it for a long time, I realized there was no way I could stop playing,” Ferris said. “It’s way too important to me.” 

Armstrong State reached out to her through email after her 2015 State Cup finals game against Tophat Gold, the number one club team in the state. The university expressed interest in her, and contacted her club coach for more information. After less than a month of recruitment, Ferris had committed.

Ferris has played varsity soccer at Grady all four years. For her final season, she has been named a captain. Tappan Wood, a teammate of Ferris, thinks Ferris will make a great captain.

“She is a natural leader and sets a good example for everyone,” Wood said. “She’s very supportive and encouraging during games and tough practices.”

Ferris’s Grady coach, Rodney Thomas, says he picked her for those exact reasons.

“I think she earned it with her attitude, her commitment and her level of play this past year,” Thomas said, “It was a no brainer.”

Ferris thinks Armstrong is a good fit for her because it is not too far from home, but also not too close.

“After I visited, I knew I wanted to go here. It’s a great school with a beautiful campus, and it’s right next to downtown Savannah,” Ferris said. “I think the distance is a perfect amount, because I can always drive back home, but it’s not right down the street.”

Thomas thinks Ferris will be a great player in college.

“I’m proud that she has the desire to take it to the next level and continue her career,” Thomas said.

Dines, Grady’s other female commit has verbally committed to Virginia Commmonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Va. to play Division I lacrosse. Dines said she is excited to play with her new team and coaches and is thankful to have found a school that both recruited her for lacrosse, and has a renowned arts program.

Dines started playing lacrosse in eighth grade. She has played for her school teams as well as multiple club teams. She started with Thunderbird’s club lacrosse and later moved to LB3 club lacrosse. Dines credits a lot of her success in lacrosse to her dad, Michael Dines.

“My dad was the first person that made me believe I could play in college,” Dines said. “He was my biggest motivator through the process and still practices with me every day.”

Dines’ first contact with VCU was her junior year when she sent them her highlight video; a coach emailed back within a few hours to say the team was interested.

Dines committed to VCU in late July after attending its summer lacrosse camp.

“I love my new coaches. All three of them are not only committed to the team but to each individual player,” Dines said. “My future teammates are amazing. They were a blast to be with and all have a tremendous amount of talent, and I can’t wait to be with them at VCU.”

Aside from VCU, Dines received offers from 40 other schools, 3 of which were in Division I. Before her commitment to VCU, she had verbally committed to Kennesaw State but later uncommitted for personal reasons.

Dines was also lucky enough to find a school that gave her an opportunity to play lacrosse and was also perfect for her other interests.

“VCU is the perfect school for me because it has an amazing art program,” Dines said. “It ranks in the top 5 in the nation. I also love the location; Richmond is an awesome town. It’s one of my dream schools.”

Dines plans to study drawing and painting at VCU’s School of the Arts.

Junior Frances Christopher, one of Dines’ teammates on the Grady lacrosse team, thinks highly of her as both a player and a captain.

“It’s really fun playing with Grace. She makes sure every player knows that their position is equally important and that’s the only way we can work as a team,” Christopher said. “She’s been ready to play at a college level ever since she stepped foot on the field her freshman year and has the ability to excel even in her least dominant position.”

Christopher said she expects Dines to continue to dominate in her collegiate career and admires her for her aggressiveness.

“Grace isn’t afraid of any challenge, whether it’s knocking someone down and still making it legal or nailing a behind the back shot,” Christopher said.